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Need to learn how to keep a lead once we get one. Having a consistent go-to guy would help that a lot. We had a few foolish turnovers down the stretch and they didn't. Fresno was red hot, and we were merely good from 3 tonight. Onward. GO LOBOS!

2 players who did not make the trip could have helped the team, we are short inside help.. We do the best we can glad we do not roll-over..

No doubt we need the bodies and the fouls. Assume Sam will be back at some point as his is an injury. Don't know about Troy. Weir had nothing to say regarding any of those situations on the postgame.

Dilemma with those two is that, while they can probably help us defensively, they take and force more bad shots than anyone else on the team. So we've had better offensive flow without them, but could obviously use more guys. Especially Sam's 6-8 frame to help inside.

2 players who did not make the trip could have helped the team, we are short inside help.. We do the best we can glad we do not roll-over..

Totally agree and you could throw in Connor as a third that didn't make the trip. I'm really enjoying watching this team, I don't think anybody that follows the lobos was expecting much this year but thier effort makes them fun to watch even if the W's and L's aren't what were used to. And how bout Maulach! He's gonna be fun to watch develope!

MM is a player and will only get better and better ... he’ll be posterizing people soon. We are developing a good core of guys for the end of this year and next ... hard not to be excited with the huge injection of talent we will get next year

I hear and agree with the positives but we still can't play decent man d - can't stay between the man and the basket off the bounce.

All the bad switching is a big part of that. Normally, you'd want to put your best individual defenders on their best guys, but we constantly see mismatches due to switches. It's not a sound man-to-man scheme at this point. Going to need superior athletes for that kind of thing to work.

All the bad switching is a big part of that. Normally, you'd want to put your best individual defenders on their best guys, but we constantly see mismatches due to switches. It's not a sound man-to-man scheme at this point. Going to need superior athletes for that kind of thing to work.

For the switching-on-crossing-paths to work you need a team full of 6-5 to 6-8 athletes. Having Joe, Vladimir, Anthony, or our short guards do this is disaster.

I hear and agree with the positives but we still can't play decent man d - can't stay between the man and the basket off the bounce.

And related to that is help side D. Players have to rotate and fill. We did it well vs Wyoming in the 2nd. We did it well off and on tonight. At times they made one more pass than we could adjust to and were able to finish. For me, this is also the first game I remember the team having a lag and looking a bit tired, in the last 7 or 8 minutes of the 2nd half. They seemed to bounce back some, but to me that stood out.

And related to that is help side D. Players have to rotate and fill. We did it well vs Wyoming in the 2nd. We did it well off and on tonight. At times they made one more pass than we could adjust to and were able to finish. For me, this is also the first game I remember the team having a lag and looking a bit tired, in the last 7 or 8 minutes of the 2nd half. They seemed to bounce back some, but to me that stood out.

for my taste, I saw way too many times in both games the dribbler blowing by his defender and then getting to the glass - might be able to overcome that at home (although still problematic) but not likely at all on the road. I see progress but our D is still below par, IMO.

there is still NO help-side defense, weakside/strongside. every time someone drives to the hoop no one is there to help on the drive>!>!??!mFEKJefeksF for the love of ball can someone just stop the drives

there is still NO CONSISTENThelp-side defense, weakside/strongside. every time someone drives to the hoop no one is there to help on the drive>!>!??!mFEKJefeksF for the love of ball can someone just stop the drives

Fixed it for you.
I saw some in the second half of the Wyoming game. Quite a bit of it, actually. It gave me great faith that it'll eventually come around...

"I'm sorry, but if you were right, I'd agree with you." -Robin Williams

All the bad switching is a big part of that. Normally, you'd want to put your best individual defenders on their best guys, but we constantly see mismatches due to switches. It's not a sound man-to-man scheme at this point. Going to need superior athletes for that kind of thing to work.

It didn't matter if we switched or not. Joe and Vlad couldn't guard Williams and Carter in the 1st half. We needed to be doubling the post from the jump.

It didn't matter if we switched or not. Joe and Vlad couldn't guard Williams and Carter in the 1st half. We needed to be doubling the post from the jump.

True. Joe just didn't bring it today defensively and Vlad is not a good defender at this point as a freshman.

Still, their guards broke us down all game and that was due to some obvious mismatches at various points. That said, UNLV is going to go inside even more than Fresno and you'll also see some crazy switches in that one like Antino on McCoy off a basic ballscreen. It's what we do.

for my taste, I saw way too many times in both games the dribbler blowing by his defender and then getting to the glass - might be able to overcome that at home (although still problematic) but not likely at all on the road. I see progress but our D is still below par, IMO.

A lot of that just seems like positioning. UNM seems to have a tendency to overplay towards the lane and then the opponent just drives diagonally to the rim.

for my taste, I saw way too many times in both games the dribbler blowing by his defender and then getting to the glass - might be able to overcome that at home (although still problematic) but not likely at all on the road. I see progress but our D is still below par, IMO.

When the opponent blows by his defender is when the help needs to arrive to keep that player getting to the rim. Hence the "help" side.

When the opponent blows by his defender is when the help needs to arrive to keep that player getting to the rim. Hence the "help" side.

I understand help D & it is not happening on a regular basis but what I'm saying is we are getting beat off the dribble very consistently which leads to the need for help. Just remember that emphasis on help D is what Alford & Neal taught which then by definition leaves some one open usually for a uncontested or "run at" 3. Weir doesn't want to leave the 3 open which limits (not eliminates) help on the drive which means we have to get better at guarding the oppositions dribble drive with the man who is supposed to be guarding him and right now that is a major deficiency IMO - we just can't consistently stay between the dribbler and the basket.

I understand help D & it is not happening on a regular basis but what I'm saying is we are getting beat off the dribble very consistently which leads to the need for help. Just remember that emphasis on help D is what Alford & Neal taught which then by definition leaves some one open usually for a uncontested or "run at" 3. Weir doesn't want to leave the 3 open which limits (not eliminates) help on the drive which means we have to get better at guarding the oppositions dribble drive with the man who is supposed to be guarding him and right now that is a major deficiency IMO - we just can't consistently stay between the dribbler and the basket.

Didn't mean to question your understanding of help side D Double. Interesting on how perspectives lead to different interpretations. Yes, leaving the middle open to defend against the 3 takes us out of a chance to help. With the way they shot 3's last night it really created a problem for us. We had to extend and that allowed for the drives to the basket. Lack of experience in our freshmen really stood out on some of those plays. They've got to do it to learn it.

On a side note, a couple of those drives to the hole were vs Dane. He is clearly limited in some aspects of his mobility due to whatever is going on with his knee. On the replay of one of those drives you could really see him wince in pain as he tried to move in reaction to a player's drive. Hope it's something Dane can recover from moving forward. Having a shorter bench may not allow for that. We'll see.

50% of that could be eliminated by the Lobos not hedging towards the lane when guarding on the perimeter. Maybe it's a tendency that they get from practice as Weir puts emphasis on 2P shots coming from the paint...just a theory.

Didn't mean to question your understanding of help side D Double. Interesting on how perspectives lead to different interpretations. Yes, leaving the middle open to defend against the 3 takes us out of a chance to help. With the way they shot 3's last night it really created a problem for us. We had to extend and that allowed for the drives to the basket. Lack of experience in our freshmen really stood out on some of those plays. They've got to do it to learn it.

On a side note, a couple of those drives to the hole were vs Dane. He is clearly limited in some aspects of his mobility due to whatever is going on with his knee. On the replay of one of those drives you could really see him wince in pain as he tried to move in reaction to a player's drive. Hope it's something Dane can recover from moving forward. Having a shorter bench may not allow for that. We'll see.

Go Lobos.

i took no offense at all. I'm not trying to be hyper critical, just trying to observe. In order to play this type of half court D, we have to get better at one on one defense of the dribble driver - I don't know what that will take or if it will happen - I just know if we are going to get significantly better this year, we have to get better at that aspect of the game.

50% of that could be eliminated by the Lobos not hedging towards the lane when guarding on the perimeter. Maybe it's a tendency that they get from practice as Weir puts emphasis on 2P shots coming from the paint...just a theory.

im not quite understanding (not criticizing). I think when we are off the ball we hedge a bit to the middle to be in a better position to help but unlike before (Alford/Neal) we don't come off near as much as we are pretty dedicated to not giving up open 3s. Maybe I'm not really getting or visualizing your point - my problem, sorry.

It's just something I've noticed on TV. Example: perimeter player is to the right of the paint, Lobo player hedges left towards the lane and basically concedes a drive to the right, opponent drives to the right for a layup. It's something I've seen a number of different players do and it doesn't seem to be based on their experience level. The opponent gets by because they're out of position from the start.